Now that I have your attention,
what the hell am I talking about??? I'm talking about one of the many species
of native Orchids that grow wild in these West Virginia Mountains.

"Adam and Eve" and "Putty
Root" are two of the common names forAplectrum hymale.
Now, if you've read any of my previous columns, you know how I feel about
common names. Not that I'm a snob trying to impress folks with my pseudo-intellectual
grasp of the "dead" language of Latin, that's beside the point. Its just
that the scientific names of plants usually insure that two people involved
in a conversation about a particular plant can be reasonably sure, barring
any meddling by some taxonomist who has probably never even seen a live
specimen of that or any other plant, decides to rename it, that they are
talking about the same plant.

Anyway.....getting
back to the plant which is really what this story started out to be about,
The scientific name tells you something about the plant. The generic name
Aplectrum comes from the Latin, A (without) and plectron (spur), meaning
that the flowers have no spurs. The specific epithet or second word, hymale,
means Winter and refers to the fact that this Orchid has a solitary leaf
that persists all Winter. This leaf can be up to 10" long and 3" wide with
beautiful parallel silver veining. In the Spring, the leaf vanishes and
a 12"-18" pencil thick stem of greenish-yellow-purplish Orchid flowers
appears.

In this instance, the
common names are quite accurate, as they refer to two interesting characteristics
of this unusual plant. First of all, "Putty Root" informs you of the fact
that Native Americans used the glutinous matter derived from crushing the
bulb of the plant to mend broken pottery and to fasten objects together.
Adam & Eve is a reference to the growth habit of the bulbs as the leaf
and flower arise from the current seasons growth (Eve) while last years
bulb (Adam), from which forth sprang Eve, is still present. One way of
propagating the plant is to cut Adam away from Eve with a sharp knife and
replant him. A. hymale usually sets copious amounts of dust like seeds
in attractive looking, pendulous pods. This is one of the easier Orchids
to grow from seed. Pour boiling water over a pot of soil to sterilize it,
let cool and sprinkle the seeds over the soil, cover with a dusting of
fine Granite Grit to discourage the growth of lichens, mosses and algae
and to prevent slugs from eating your seedlings, and set it outside and
let nature take its course. The seeds will usually germinate the following
Spring and in a few years you will have flowering size plants.

I can't really recommend
companion plants for Aplectrum hymale because for my tastes, I have
found that it looks best on its own in a natural looking colony. I'm sure
that if space is a problem in your garden, you can use your imagination
and find a pleasing neighbor for your plantings of it. Unlike some terrestrial
orchids, there seems to be no apparent macrorhizal fungal requirement for
these plants to grow happy and healthy in a normal garden enviornment.

Aplectrum hymale
is a woodland plant that, in the wild, can be found in the shade of rich
moist woods. If these conditions exist in your garden, they will be very
happy there and before long you will have a nice little colony of these
eye catching plants thats bound to strike up a conversation among visitors
to your garden. You can then impress them with your command of Latin and
some interesting trivia about the plant.